24/7 Wall St. points out that while the U.S. still has historically low crime levels, the rate of violent incidents, including murders, appears to be increasing in the recent past.

This trend was confirmed by an FBI news release about its 2015 statistics which stated that there was an overall "3.9 percent increase in the estimated number of violent crimes...compared to 2014 data."

The release further noted there were an estimated 1,197,704 violent crimes committed in the U.S. While that was an increase from 2014 figures, the 2015 violent crime total was 0.7 percent lower than the 2011 level and 16.5 percent below the 2006 level."

According to Pew Research Center, there has generally been a gap between the Americans' perception of crime rate versus the actual data over a longer term period. It notes, "In 21 Gallup surveys conducted since 1989, a majority of Americans said there was more crime in the U.S. compared with the year before, despite the generally downward trend in both violent and property crime rates during much of that period."